I went to check on the bird a bit after four. As I drove there I wondered what a heron was doing down in an apartment complex. But when I found building seven I looked up and saw the big power lines and I knew what to expect.
Sure enough, when I drove up there was an adult heron lying panting on the ground with a horribly broken wing. The wing was pointing the wrong direction, and was covered in blood and flies. It was a classic power line strike with severely broken wing. It's almost always fatal and undoubtedly extremely painful I caught the bird quickly with as little stress as possible (for both of us; herons are big and potentially dangerous birds). I took it to the Cornell vet school's wildlife clinic where it was examined, anesthetized, and humanely euthanized, as I knew it would have to be. The wing was held on only by skin and was far beyond repair. The poor bird was in shock and obviously a lot of pain. I surmise that the heron struck the power lines in the fog in the morning. It was apparently flying full speed into the fog because it broke some ribs as well as it's wing, poor thing. I checked its feet and found both back toes present. So, who ever this heron was, it was not the male who was breeding on camera at the Lab the last few years. Kevin Sent from my iPhone On Jun 10, 2015, at 9:29 PM, "Laurie Roe" <roel...@gmail.com<mailto:roel...@gmail.com>> wrote: Hi all, I don't have any details but I was emailed that the bird was on the way to the vet's sometime this afternoon! Thanks to rescuers! Laurie -- The cure for anything is salt water: sweat, tears or the sea. Isak Dinesen <http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/i/isak_dinesen.html> Healing Hands of Ithaca MassageIthaca.com<http://MassageIthaca.com> 108 W. Buffalo Street, Ithaca,NY [cid:] -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: Welcome and Basics<http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME> Rules and Information<http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES> Subscribe, Configuration and Leave<http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm> Archives: The Mail Archive<http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html> Surfbirds<http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds> BirdingOnThe.Net<http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html> Please submit your observations to eBird<http://ebird.org/content/ebird/>! -- -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
